Help for iPhone and iPod touch

If You Have Trouble Downloading

You may have no active credit cards in your account. In order to download your purchase, you must have at least one active credit card in your account.

To solve this, simply log in to your ereader.com account. Click on ACCOUNT near the top center of the home page. Scroll down to the area with the ADD CREDIT CARD button. Add any valid credit card. We will make a $1 charge to the card to validate it, but we will never "capture" the transaction so you will not actually lose any money and it will disappear off your account in a few days. This is just so we can validate it.

Be sure to use the very same billing name and card number to unlock your books after getting them onto the iphone/ipod touch. Spelling and middle initials matter in the name. The device will remember the last few unlock codes in a secure way so you will not have to keep entering it over and over for every book, just the first book then after that only when you change your card number.

Installing the eReader application

To get eReader onto your iPhone or iPod touch, first use iTunes 7.7 or later to upgrade your iPhone or iPod touch to the 2.0 operating system, then download the FREE eReader application from the application store and follow the easy installation instructions. eReader can be found in the BOOKS or ENTERTAINMENT categories of the App Store, whose Home screen icon appears on your device after upgrading to the 2.0 operating system (note: it's not quite in alphabetical order so keep scrolling until you find eReader). You can also find eReader quickly using the Search function in the App Store. We recommend that you power cycle your device BEFORE installing or upgrading eReader. Please note the 2.0 iPod touch upgrade costs $9.95 from Apple while the upgrade is free for iPhone. The new iPhone 3G already comes with 2.0 installed. You can get the latest iTunes upgrade here: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/.

Updating the eReader application

To update eReader on your iPhone or iPod touch, follow these instructions (We recommend that
you power cycle your device BEFORE installing or upgrading.):
1. Go into the app store on the iPhone or iPod touch.
2. Click on UPDATES near the bottom.
3. Wait a few seconds. You should see an update for eReader. Click on UPDATE ALL near the top.
4. All of your apps should now update.

Note: the current version of eReader is 1.2. To see help pages on version 1.1, click here. To see help pages on version 1.0, click here.

How to use eReader

To open a book, simply tap on the title of a book to start reading it.
To get back to the bookshelf, tap the Bookshelf button in the navigation bar at the top of the screen.
While reading a book, swipe the screen right to left to flip to the next page and left to right to go backward. Just a very small swipe will do, half an inch or so. If you prefer to tap rather than swipe to turn pages, there is an option to change the page turn gesture.

Bookshelf

Portrait View

Landscape View

Tap the screen to show the toolbar at the bottom of the screen (if you are using tap to turn pages then a swipe will display the toolbar).
The toolbar contains icons allowing you view the table of contents, find text, find again, and customize reading options.

The gear icon on the toolbar brings up the Settings screen. The Settings screen allows you to lock the screen orientation (for example if you read laying on your side), select white-on-black text mode, select tap or swipe page turning gestures, and select text justification options.

When you first open an eBook it has to be "paginated" in order to present a consistent page by page view of the eBook. You may begin reading even while pagination is in progress. A bar at the bottom of the screen shows pagination progress. Pagination typically takes a minute or so depending on how big the eBook is.

If you try to jump to a section of the eBook that has not yet been paginated you will get a "Waiting for Page" message. If you change font size or style, or if you flip to landscape viewing then the eBook may have to be re-paginated. But each orientation and font size combination is only paginated once, eReader saves pagination information for each eBook.

After pagination is completed, a thin bar at the very bottom of the screen shows how far into the eBook you have read.

Deleting eBooks

In the bookshelf, delete books by tapping the Edit button in the navigation bar at the top of the screen, then use the standard iPhone OS interface controls to delete a book. Tap the Done button to return to viewing the bookshelf.

You can always download your eBooks again in the future by going back to your eReader.com or Fictionwise.com bookshelf.

To add books to your iPhone OS device's bookshelf from a store bookshelf, tap the + button in the upper right-hand corner of the navigation bar. Then choose "eReader sites". This will open a screen to allow you to enter your login information which includes your account name and password. Press Go and your information will be verified and then the contents of you on-line bookshelf will be listed for you. Then just browse your book listings and tap on the book you'd like to download to your device. A popup will confirm your request. Press OK and the book will download to your iPhone OS device in the background, and you'll be notified when it has finished downloading. Note: Leaving the application or allowing your device to fall asleep while a book is transferring may abort the download.

Warning: It is not recommended that you attempt to download all the books in your bookshelf all at the same time. Depending on your network connection speed and the book's size, it can take anywhere from a few seconds to minutes for books to download. Some user's bookshelves are quite large and this would only increase the server load on ereader.com and could result in aborted downloads.

Unlocking Premium eBooks

Major publishers require that their eBooks be locked for each customer. eReader eBooks are locked using the billing name and credit card number of the primary credit card on your eReader.com or Fictionwise.com account.

When you first open a premium eBook, you will be prompted to enter this information. Please note that you must spell your billing name exactly as you did when you registered it in your account, including middle initials, but upper and lower case do not matter.

NOTE: For security reasons eReader does not actually store your card information in the eBook or on your device, rather it uses a 1-way "hash code" of the information, and it is impossible to recover your information from this "hash code".

You only need to enter the information once per card, eReader remembers the hash codes of the last few card numbers you have entered and automatically tries them when you open a new premium eBook on your iPhone or iPod Touch. This method of locking premium eBooks has big advantages over other systems, for more information browse over to: http://www.ereader.com/iphonedrm

Browsing Other Web Sites for Content

eReader can browse to other web sites that offer eReader format PDB content. Please note that not all PDB files are in the eReader format, as the PDB extension is used by many applications. Incompatible files will not open in eReader. For this to work you must browse from within the eReader application itself-- the standard Safari browser on your device cannot download eReader PDB files.

To add books to your iPhone OS device's bookshelf from other web sites, tap the + button in the navigation bar then select "Other sites". Enter the URL of the web site from which you wish to download eReader PDB files. For example, http://www.manybooks.net has free eReader format eBooks available. When you click on a link to download an eReader format PDB file, it will be added to your shelf.

NOTE: the web site in question must use a PDB extension on the download link or eReader will not recognize the file type. Not all web sites that offer eReader format PDB files use a compatible link format. See "Uploading Personal Content" below for another way to get content from those sites.
For a partial list of web sites that are known to work with the browse download feature see http://www.ereader.com/iphone/stores.htm

Uploading Personal Content

There are several ways to upload personal content onto your device from a personal computer or Mac. For example if you have created your own eReader format PDB files, or if you have purchased eReader format content from other vendors who do not use a compatible link format to allow the browsing download method discussed above.
For complete instructions on how to upload your personal content see http://www.ereader.com/personal-content

After downloading a dictionary, open it and unlock it if necessary. If you do not know how to do this, please see the Unlocking Premium eBooks instructions above. You may look-up words and definitions by browsing the word list or by searching for a word. Tap on a word to see the definition. Tap on the header bar to go back to the word list.

While you are reading, eReader allows you to look-up words in dictionaries or thesauri. eReader uses the last reference book opened for this purpose. Therefore, you must open the reference book you wish to use as your default from the bookshelf at least once before trying to use the look-up feature. After that, you may look up a word in any eBook you happen to be reading using eReader! Just press your finger on the word and hesitate a moment (approximately 1 second). After pressing your finger on a word you can also drag your finger to highlight several words or a phrase. You will be taken to the dictionary you last opened using eReader with the closest matching word in the dictionary's word list highlighted. Tap on that word and you will see the definition. Click on the header bar to go back to the original eBook.

Tips

You may want to consider setting Auto-Lock on your device (Settings, General) to at least 2 or 3 minutes while reading eBooks. For maximum battery life, you should consider setting Brightness to the minimum comfortable level. Reading time is typically 6 to 8 hours depending on the brightness setting, plenty enough for a coast-to-coast flight!

Future Releases

This is version 1.2 of eReader for iPhone OS devices, and we'll be making many enhancements over the coming months. If you have feature requests for future versions of eReader, please drop us an email at iphone@ereader.com.

Please note that this email is only for suggestions, it is not for customer support and you will not receive a response. For customer support, go to www.ereader.com or www.fictionwise.com and click on the HELP link."

For More Information

For more information browse to http://www.ereader.com/iphone for an introductory video you can view right on your iPhone or iPod touch as well as lists of eBook stores and special promotions.